Two Taiwan Men Arrested on Charges Of Sex Trafficking
Two Taiwanese nationals have been arrested for their alleged involvement in a human trafficking ring that has reportedly lured hundreds of Cambodian women into Taiwan’s sex trade by arranging fake marriages.
The two men and their accomplices, six Cambodian women, were arrested Wednesday after a police raid at the Beauty Inn Hotel on Sihanouk Boulevard in Phnom Penh, said Bith Kimhong, deputy municipal police chief.
The suspects allegedly brought 20 Cambodian women to the hotel for inspection by Taiwanese men on the pretext the men were looking for Cambodian women to marry and bring to Taiwan, Bith Kimhong said.
While some of the marriages arranged by the group are legitimate, the majority are a trick to bring Cambodian women to Taiwan where they are later sold as prostitutes, Phnom Penh Governor Chea Sophara said Thursday.
Police had tracked the activities of the marriage scam but waited until Wednesday to make arrests when the six Cambodian members of the ring met with the two Taiwanese masterminds at the hotel, Chea Sophara said.
The gang has organized the marriage of hundreds of Cambodian women over a three year period, said Chea Sophara, adding that the majority were later forced to be prostitutes.
“This is a human rights issue,” he said.
Most of the 20 women found at the hotel knew they were being shown as prospective brides. However, some were told they were going to work as maids in Taiwan, said Ream Vichet, the municipality’s Tourism Police chief.
According to Ream Vichet, the trafficking operation is run from Taipei where a Taiwanese ringleader organizes Cambodian women for Taiwanese men at a fee of $6,000 each. The majority of the women are then resold as prostitutes, officials maintain.
The 20 women, ranging in age from 18 to 20 years, would have been paid $800 to $1300—depending on their beauty—if they were chosen by the Taiwanese customers who travel to Cambodia. The money is usually given to the women’s families, Ream Vichet said.
The two Taiwanese men arrested at the hotel Wednesday received $2000 for each of marriage they arranged.
The six Cambodians who procured the women in Phnom Penh and Kompong Cham and Kandal provinces would have been paid between $50 and $200 for each girl they found, Ream Vichet said.
Ream Vichet appealed to Cambodian parents to be wary of allowing their daughters to marry Taiwanese men. “Please don’t believe what [the people] who cheat you say,” he said.
The 20 women found at the hotel will stay in the custody of an NGO until they are collected by their parents.
Two Taiwanese bride hunters and one woman, the mother of one of the men, who were also arrested in Wednesday’s raid, were in police detention Thursday but a request will be made for their release, Ream Vichet said.
The two prospective husbands paid the $6000 fee to the ringleader in Taipei, but Municipal Police believe the mens’ intentions to marry were genuine.
“The woman came to Cambodia to find a Cambodian girl for her son to marry,” Ream Vichet. “They will be allowed go home.”
In 1997 Phnom Penh’s seven districts were ordered not to issue marriage licenses to Taiwanese men looking to marry Cambodian women.
The ruling was made after widespread complaints that Cambodian women brought to Taiwan as brides were later forced to work as prostitutes.
“We know about this sadness from the mouths of the Khmer women themselves who work in brothels in Taiwan,” Municipal Cabinet Chief Mann Chhoeun said at the time. “Some do not have the time to wear their underwear during the day.”
(Additional reporting Thet Sambath)
